presented an organ class at the Valley Stake. Erin and I attended and what
an awesome opportunity. To be able to see and talk with and be taught by
such a talented individual was so exciting. We started our class with a hymn,
which he played and an opening prayer. (of course)
He talked about the obstacles facing a new organist and then gave us 4 steps
to learning to play the organ. 1. Read all about organs 2. Listen to recordings of other organists, 3. study with a good teacher 4. practice on a regular basis (it pays off).
He suggests using a metronome and slow down when learning a new piece and then build up faster.
Goals for practicing: have a warm up time ( arpeggios, scales), Building time where you mark your
music, fingering and peddling and registrations, Interpreting time and a performing time. To practice
he suggests breaking your music down and learn the right hand and then the left hand or measure
by measure and then put it together. He said there is no rule on whether the organist plays a
little more if the boys haven't finished making the sacrament ready. Sometimes "quiet" is nice.
He had previously asked 4-5 people to come up and play something and then he critiqued them.
That was interesting but nothing I would be brave enough to do! He left us with this thought:
"nothing can influence the spirit of the meeting more than music" - Harold B. Lee.
SUNDAY - Dad and I attended his concert at St John's Cathedral and it was awesome too. He did some
Handel and Bach and then some of his own arrangments. (the cathedral is so huge and the colored
windows are beautiful but it is very cold inside with all of the brick it's made out of) There were pipes
in front, on the sides and in the back so the sound was all around. There were refreshments provided
afterward but we didn't stay for that. It was a nice experience to just be there and hear him play.
Benches were hard and it was kind of cool inside so we just decided to leave.
1 comment:
So cool Mom! I bet that was really neat to be able to learn from him - were there a lot of people there? And so fun to hear a concert of just him playing - pretty neat.
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